M. Paul
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Racah Institute of Physics, Jerusalem, Israel

M. Salvatores
CEA Cadarache, Saint Paul Lez Durance, France

Funding:This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.A project using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is underway at the ATLAS facility to measure the atom densities of transmutation products present in samples irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. These atom densities will be used to infer effective actinide neutron capture cross-sections ranging from Thorium to Califorium isotopes in different neutron spectra relevant to advanced fuel cycles. This project will require the measurement of many samples with high precision and accuracy. The AMS technique at ATLAS is based on production of highly-charged positive ions in an ECRIS followed by injection into a linear accelerator. We use a picosecond laser to ablate the actinide material into the ion source. We expect that the laser ablation technique will have higher efficiency and lower chamber contamination than sputtering or oven evaporation thus reducing ‘cross talk’ between samples. In addition a multi-sample holder/changer is part of the project to allow for a quick change between multiple samples. The results of off-line ablation tests and first results of a beam generated by the laser coupled to the ECR will be discussed as well as the overall project schedule.